F.W. Chesson                                	      File: RADIOAGE.HTM 
144 Fiske Street,                            	       Rev: 2-11-1996 
Waterbury, CT  06710                                   Rev: 4-26-2000  
 
 
               
		                IT'S IN THE AIR!     
 
     Being some thoughts on the September, 1927 "Citizens Radio Call Book."
 
                                       by 
                              Frederick W. Chesson 
 
	(First published in the February, 1996 Issue of The Old Timer's 
	 Bulletin, a publication of the Antique Wireless Association.)
  
  
     America in 1927...that heady era of Lucky Lindy, flappers, the Charleston,
Babe Ruth, bootlegging and bathtub gin, Normalcy, and of course...RADIO!  

     Thanks to technical advances arising out of "The Great War" (Later to be 
simply WW-One), the ground for "broadcasting" in America had been well nurtured.
Following the end of War Emergancy bans on the growing amateur radio fraternity,
legislation had provided for commercial use of frequencies extending from about
600 to 200 meters, or 550 to 1500 KC. "Two Hundred Meters and Down" later the
province of ham opeartors, was just about ignored for commercial broadcast 
purposes. But within this frequency slot, an exciting new empire was attracting
all America....
 
     Naturally, there were hosts of books and magazines to cover the state of 
the New Art and to promote its products and services. Old standbys like Popular
Mechanics and Popular Science had regular radio sections, and many newspapers 
ran columns dedicated to programing, trade news and Build-it-Yourself circuitry.
     During the height of the wireless craze, there were bi-weekly and even 
weekly radio publications. Charles R. Thomas, Inc. of New York City was already
issuing "Radiophone Weekly" in April of 1923, when he published an 18-page 
pamphlet for ten cents, entitled: "How to Make Your Own Radiophone" (a crystal
set) "Prepared by Experts."  The back cover featured an ad from Davega "The 
Sportsman's Paradise" featuring parts and "Complete Radio Outfits, $15 to $356"
at all five of its New York stores. 
     Ray-O-Vac, an entity of the French Battery and Carbon Company of Madison, 
Wisconsin, put out a Radio Trouble Finder and Broadcasting Station Directory 
on a regular basis. Its March, 1925 issue listed some 125 stations, almost all
American, along with technical advice and ten color illustrations of its 
blue-rayed radio battery products.
     Power levels ranged from 5 to 2,000 watts, while wavelengths varied from 
545 down to 146 meters, the latter figure being definitely in the "short wave"
category.

     To be examined here is The CITIZENS RADIO CALL BOOK MAGAZINE, published	
quarterly; January, March, September and November, at 508 South Dearborn St. 
in Chicago. The original publication of 1921 was the still tri-annual Citizens
Radio Amateur Call Book. 
     Volume 8, Number 2, appearing in September, 1927, was a virtual compendium
of the trade.  For example, it contained 28 pages of American broadcasters and
and 3 of foreign stations. Some 85 pages detailed the features and construction
of 20 new receivers. There were 10 pages of "Radio Celebrities; People You Hear
But Seldom See," 6 pages of "Ampere Andy's Assistors" for set builders, plus 115
pages of ads for sets, kits, services and components. In the latter category 
were batteries and eliminators, tubes, loudspeakers, transformers and dials, 
plus two to fourteen-tube sets and kits. There were even correspondence courses 
for aspiring "Radio Doctors," as service technicians were then known.

     Among the "Unseen But Heard" shown in the Roto Personalities section were
the A & P Gypsies, the Cliquot Club Eskimos, the Whittall Anglo-Persians and the
National Cavaliers (all on WEAF in NYC) and Nate Lynn's Troubadors from KMO. 
Four-part groups included the WBZ Capitol Brass Quartet, the Sub-antenna 
Crusaders Quartet, plus the Apollo Male Quartet from KYW in Chicago.
     Radio duos were represented by Val and Ernie Stanton, "The English Boys
from America" on WJZ, also Ada and Beulah, "The Golden State Girls" from San 
Francisco's KYA, plus Clyde and Florence Massengale of KFJZ, "The Nightingales
of Fort Worth."
     Announcers were entirely masculine, but soloists and story tellers were
well-represented by the Fair Sex in the Roto section.  Most of these golden 
voices were theatrical veterans, but one Master Conrad Rainhard, "The Boy 
Paderewski" of WRVA in Richmond, looked young enough to have grown up along 
with the new medium itself.

     As to station proliferation, the Radio Log section listed a total of 756
stations in the 48 States, three each in the District of Columbia and Alaska, 
plus one each for Hawaii and Puerto Rico.   
     Canada had 75 stations, 30 in populous Ontario Province, powers ranging
from 5 to 5,000 watts. Listeners were required, as in Great Britain, to pay
an annual license fee for each set. Enforcement would seem mainly from a sense
of civic duty, especially in the case of non-radiating crystal sets. (There is
a question as to the detectablity of TRF sets.  Properly designed and built RF
amplifiers have minimal radiation.  But factors like signal overloading, aging
tubes and components could all produce parasitic oscillations, easily tracked-
down by sensitive D-F equipment.)
     Mexico, with CY- call letters, had only 20 broadcasters, none over 500 W.
Yet, within a few years, border towns like Tia Juana would soon host mega-watt
commercial powerhouses directed specifically at El Norte's proliferating
Gringo listeners.
     The Greater New York City and Chicago areas hosted some 40 transmitters,
apiece, up from but 15 each, only two years previously. Philadelphia and 
Seattle both had 17, while Los Angles and Boston counted a dozen broadcasters. 
 
     The FCC's predecessor, the Federal Radio Commission of the Department  
of Commerce, seems to have gone out of its way in this exuberant era to ensure 
that station operation was not reserved for the wealthy or the mighty.  While
titans like RCA, Westinghouse and General Electric had their own networks, 
there were myriads of state, county, and municipally-owned stations, plus those
owned by railroads, power and light utilities, realty and insurance companies, 
hotels and banks. Churches, colleges, high schools, fraternal groups, hospitals
newspapers, granges and military organizations also crowded the airwaves.
     Many stations dealt in religious and/or educational programs, some of a
controversial nature. WCBD in Zion, Illinois, for example, was the 1500 watt
voice of Wilbur Glenn Voliva, religious fanatic and militant promoter of the 
"Flat Earth Theory." He had frequently predicted the flapjack-shaped planet's 
violent demise, but always found new calculations for future Armageddons.
     On a more grass-roots level were scores of stations operated by very small
businesses, including clothiers, garages, furniture stores, radio shops, and at
least one beauty parlor.  At the most nitty-gritty level of this broadcasting 
democracy was a host of one-man operations, mostly under 100 watts in power. 
Typical of these might have been WJBK, on 1360 KC, putting out all of 15 watts
in behalf of one Ernest F. Goodwin of Ypsilanti, Michigan.  But perhaps the
most obscure...and perhaps least-heard...stations, were two 5 watt stations in
Santa Rosa, California. In 1925, KFNV was licensed to L. A. Drake, while KWTC
was the pride of Dr. John W. Hancock, who hosted daily dinner music plus a 
Saturday Night "Frolic and Radio Revue" and boasted of being the "Garden of 
Eden Station," all with but 5 watts of RF power!
     A more powerful operation was Carl G. Fisher's 1000 watt WIOD in Miami. 
His station's slogan of "Wonderful Island Of Dreams," took full advantage of its
call letters at 1210 KC on the dial.  In this age of Babbittry and Boosterism,
civic pride was often over-inflated by enthusiastic sloganeering, a practice 
quickly taken up by local stations.  When call letters could be custom-tailored
to a snappy acronym, a new broadcaster could feel doubly blessed by a benevolent
bureaucracy back in Washington. 
     By way of exaple, WTIC, Hartford, Connecticut's pioneering station, was 
owned by the Travelers Insurance Company, and boasted a matching slogan of "The
Insurance City."  Bridgeport's WICC call letters designated the "Industrial 
Capital of Connecticut."  A few broadcasters even utilized the initial W for 
their sloganeering.  Gimbel Brothers in Philadelphia proudly identified their 
500 watt WIP by boasting: "Watch Its Progress!"  WJR not only stood for the 
Jewett Radio & Phonograph Co. of Pontiac, Michigan, but was graced with the 
matching slogan of "Where Joy Reigns!"  Mighty Sears Roebuck in Chicago could 
naturally boast that WLS, its 5000 W station on 870 KC, stood for the "World's
Largest Store."  Farther north, the Wisconsin Department of Markets made full 
use of its WLBL call letters to boast: "Wisconsin, Land of Beautiful Lakes."
     Other acronyms included: WMBB = "World's Most Beautiful Ballroom," WMBD =
"World's Most Beautiful Drive."  And for the First Methodist Church of Lapeer,
Michigan, its WMPC stood proudly for "Where Many Preach Christ."  Station WTAQ,
owned by the Gillette Rubber Co. of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, served its listening
public with both Sunday services, weather, markets, and entertainment in the 
form of The Balloon Cords Program.  Its motto, appropriately enough, was "Where
Tires Are Quality!"  Finally, there was WHBQ, licensed to the Men's Fellowship
Class of the M.E. Church of Memphis, Tennessee, whose call-letters boasted "We
Have (the) Best Quartet."
     Stations west of the Mississippi in K-Prefix Country, were more challenged
for call-letter slogans, though Kansas broadcasters had a ready made advantage,
as in KWKC = "Keep Watching Kansas City!" or KFH = "Kansas' Finest Hotel" (Hotel
Lassen of Wichita).  Stations in other states came up with such innovations as: 
KFCB = "Kind Friends Come Back." (Nielson Radio Supply Co. of Phoenix, 1230 KC
at 125 W), or  KFQB in Fort Worth, Texas (1150 KC, 1,000 W) with managed to
come up with "Keep Folks Quoting (the) Bible," or KFDM = "Kall For Dependable
Magnolene (Magnolia Petroleum Co. of Beaumont, Texas, 800 KC at 500 W), while
KTHS at the New Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas invited listeners to 
"Kum To Hot Springs."
     The W- and K- East-West prefixing was not then "carved in stone," Missouri
having 9 "W-" stations out of a total of 23.  Perhaps the most notable western
exception was Waco, Texas, which may have used some oil-money influence to get
its unique WACO call in 1922.  Ware, Massachusetts would later latch on to WARE
for its own. Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and the two Dakotas also had "W" to confuse
early BC DXers as to geographic location. Most listeners, though, were long
familiar with the original exception, Westinghouse's pioneering station KDKA
in Pittsburgh. The company also had KDPM for its Cleveland, Ohio station.

     Station air-times were often irregular and limited to evenings, except on
Sunday mornings, when church services and cultural lectures usually prevailed. 
WBZ of East Spingfield (now in Boston) had a 24-hour broadcast-day, on 900 KC
with 15,000 watts, and could properly boast that it was indeed "The Broadcast-
ing Station of New England." Another Westinghouse station, WBZA, in Boston,
also had 24-hour transmissions on 900 KC, but with only 500 W.  Stations were
also required to share air-time, and also to curtail night-time power levels,
so as to avoid swamping distant stations with the mysterious "skip."

     Also listed by Radio Call Book were some 475 foreign stations, transmitting
on wave-lengths varying from 4000 down to 30 M, though 300 M (1 MHz) seems to 
have been a general average.  Rated power levels rose from a paltry 10 W up to
a potent 40 KW.  The latter was radiated by RDW, Moscow's own Voice of Inter-
national Communism on 1450 M.  Motala, Sweden, put out 30 KW on 1305 M, followed
by 5XX in Daventry, England, with 25 KW on 1604 M.  
     Other power-houses were Kovno, Lithuania on 219 and 2000 meters, and Stras-
bourg, France on 200 M, both with 15 KW, followed closely by Berlin's LP on 
1300 M, with 12 KW.  Stations of 10 KW included Nordischer Rundfunk of Hamburg
and 429 MAFP on a long 4000 M at Konigswursterhausen, Germany, plus AXO in
Warsaw on 1111 M and Leningrad's RA42 on 1000 meters.  There were also some 150
stations in the 1000-5000 W range, spanning a geographic alphabet going from
Argentina (LOO at 250 M) to Venezuela (AYRE on 375 M).

     Bringing all these transmissions to Mr. and Mrs. Listening America were
receivers ranging from simple crystal sets to 16-tube monsters, replete with 
massive A and B-Battery chargers or eliminators, spider-web loop antennae and 
garishly-decorated loud speakers, often lacking in both fidelity and artistic 
virtue.
     Superhets were around, but their low interemediate frequencies of around 
50 KHz lessened their theoretical selectivity over Tuned Radio Frequency sets,
especially in the congested air-lanes of multi-station cities.  However, three
sets built in the Citizens Radio Call Book Laboratory had IFs of 85, 95 and 112
KHz, indicating a continuing improvement in transformer and circuit design.
     TRF sets still predominated, but improvements as single-dial tuning and 
automatic filament current regulators had now reduced panel controls and
operating complexities to a minimum.
     Inside these diverse receivers, the ubiquitous 201A triode, made by scores
of manufacturers, was still firmly socketed in millions of sets. Other triodes
seeing increasing use were such UX-prefixed tubes as 112, 171, 199, 210, 222,
226, 240, and the new UV-227 indirect-cathode tube.  Another newcomer, the
UX-280 full-wave rectifier gave built-in power supplies a potent marketing edge.
     "Lamp Plug Power" was indeed the New Wave, and many Call Book pages were
devoted to advertisements for "All Electric" sets.  Also popular were battery 
chargers and eliminators, employing both hot and cold-cathode tubes or "Cuprox"
copper-oxide rectifiers, all helping to keep older sets in the running.

     RCA's Radiola Models 17 and 18 were typical of advanced TRF sets. Each 
sported a three-gang tuning capacitor coupled to a rotary, lighted dial and a
UX-280 rectifier-type power supply sprouting numerous B+ and C- taps.  Tube 
line up was three UX-226 RF amplifiers, a UV-227 plate-detector, UX-226 first 
audio and a UX-171 as output amplifier.  
     Volume control was a wire-wound pot across the antenna input, with every-
thing else running flat out. The companion speaker was typically an RCA R-100,
with its 8"-cone, monster horse-shoe magnet and built-in (Lo-Fi) hiss-filter.
     The Model 17 was supplied to RCA by General Electric, and the Model 18 by
Westinghouse, with later Radiolas made in Camden, New Jersey. But from the list
of Radio Call Book advertisers, one could easily conclude that Chicago was the
Radio Capital, as well as the Meatpacking Capital, of the world.  Granted that 
the Call Book was published in Chicago, it is still remarkable that out of 190
names, 95 were in the Windy City, against 30 in the New York City Area, with 10
in Greater Boston, and 9 around Cleveland.  Such was the Radio Age of 1927....

     A dozen years later, Radio Daily's 1939 Yearbook reflected a quantum leap
of progress, despite the Great Depression. A host of multi-electrode tubes had
appeared, including octals, loctals and acorns. Electronic television had also
arrived, stimulated by the impending New York and San Francisco Worlds Fairs.
FM, championed by Edwin Armstrong was being heard from a still-standing tower 
at Alpine, New Jersey, on the original 42-50 MHz band.
     Broadcasting had considerably matured, and gone were the flea-power broad-
casters and their little "Empires of the Air."  The Yearbook listed some 650
stations, down by 100 from 1927's heady days.  Minimum station power was now 
100 watts, while WLW in Cincinnati could boast of a whopping 500 KW output.
     Departed were most of the pioneering sets and kits that had opened the air
waves to an enthusiastic America. Brands like Audiola, Camfield, Freed-Eismann,
Colin-Kennedy, Tuska, Leutz, Tyrman, St. James and Westgale had all gone to that
Big Radio Showroom in the Sky, where neither QRM nor QRN could intrude on the 
hallowed ether of by-gone receivers.
     Canada now had almost 90 stations, ranging in power from 50 to 50,000
watts.  Receivers were still being licensed, each of 1.1 million sets bringing
in $2.50 per year.  Enforcement was easier, as superhets with their radiating
local oscillators now predominated.  But Northern air-waves would soon become 
free, under the impulse of another World War. Like its predecessor, WW-Two was 
to usher in the technologies leading to our present Satellite-Based, Interactive
Global Village, Multi-Media Communications Age....